NAACP: Totally rezone Orange school district

May 13, 2009|By Erika Hobbs, Sentinel Staff Writer

The president of Orange County's NAACP chapter is challenging public-school leaders to rezone attendance lines for the entire district -- an action, he said, that would ensure that all students are treated fairly.

The Rev. Randolph Bracy Jr., echoing a call School Board member Kat Gordon made months ago, stopped short of calling on district leaders to halt plans to close a number of small elementary schools.

Instead, he called on leaders to avoid taking a piecemeal approach to such a sensitive matter and to look at a wholesale rezoning first.

"That study should be completed before any decisions about school closings are made," he wrote in a statement.

His comments come ahead of the School Board's vote later this month on whether to close six elementary schools and create two new K-to-8 campuses -- a move that would affect as many as 7,000 students and change some attendance boundaries. Most of the schools are in low-income black neighborhoods.

The plan, which came about as a way to save as much as $8 million in a tight budget year, has become a contentious issue among parents from the start.

Amid the debate, school leaders also have come under fire for failing to ensure that a biracial citizens committee review their school-closing plans as required in a 45-year-old federal desegregation case against the county.

A newly constituted biracial committee, the court's watchdog, has since shot down parts of the plan that it said created predominantly black schools instead of campuses that mixed races.

The group's recommendation is not binding. However, Orange County's School Board, which will make the decision, is taking steps to end federal oversight of its education system and has been working with the NAACP to do that.

In a phone interview, Bracy said the district now has the chance to fix the errors of the past and to set a standard that is fair to all children regardless of where they live.

"Our communities have been destabilized as a result of the rezoning plans over the years," he said. "What we want to do now, if we have the opportunity, is to get it right this time."

Orange School Superintendent Ron Blocker responded by saying that the school district has changed considerably since the federal lawsuit was filed.

"The conditions that existed 45 years ago, I don't believe exist today," Blocker said. "That's for a third party to decide."

However, Blocker said any overall rezoning effort would have to "run parallel" to discussions about ending the federal desegregation suit.

In his statement, Bracy pointed to several examples of the "burden" that current policies have placed on black communities:

*Seven of the 16 small schools that officials originally considered for closure -- including Eccleston, Maxey and Orange Center -- have been historically operated as segregated schools. Closing them, he said, would create a "potentially devastating" loss of local facilities for the communities.

*Officials deliberately built larger schools in white areas over the years to accommodate growth, he said, while keeping campuses in black neighborhoods small. Therefore, the standard for closing small schools is questionable, he said.

*District leaders have failed to renovate or build schools in black neighborhoods for decades and let them fall into disrepair. Closing schools based on that neglect is not fair, Bracy added.

*Winter Park's Killarney Elementary was exempt from closure because of recent renovations and because officials said it had room to accept students from other schools. However, records show it is over capacity, while several of the black schools slated to be shuttered have ample room.

And on a simpler level, Bracy added, what sense does it make for children to get up in the wee hours of the morning because antiquated zoning policies require them to be bused miles away instead of going to a neighborhood school outside their door?

"We want to be understood: We are very serious about fairness," he said.

Bracy said his group, which is the plaintiff in the federal case requiring Orange County to desegregate schools, will be keeping a close eye on the board's May 26 vote to close schools.

If the group doesn't like the results, it is prepared to tell the courts that Orange has not complied with the court order, and it will fight attempts to end federal oversight.

Gordon, the board's only black member, said she agrees "100 percent" with Bracy.

"Are people going to be upset? Yes. But fairness is better," Gordon said about the rezoning proposal.

Gordon, who months ago asked Blocker to consider a wholesale rezoning of the district, said her colleagues need to take a thorough look not only at racial balance but at other factors as well, such as residential patterns.

The district's data show that it has dozens of schools made up mostly of one race, which may be because of factors beyond the board's control, Gordon said.